Airports

New York City's much-maligned LaGuardia Airport is to receive a significant redesign, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has revealed. The redesign will totally change the airport's existing layout in favor of a new unified terminal, at an estimated total cost of US$4 billion.

Small airports are often in a no-win situation. They don't have much traffic because they don't have an adequate tower system, and they don't have an adequate tower system because they don't have much traffic. That could be about to change, with the opening of the world's first remotely operated air-traffic control system in Sweden. Thanks to the Remote Tower Services (RTS) system, the first plane landed last week at Örnsköldsvik Airport, but it was controlled from the LFV Remote Tower Centre 123 km away in Sundsvall.
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China currently boasts the world's largest building, could soon be home to the world's tallest pair of towers, and according to Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), we will soon be able to add an airport passenger terminal to the list. The firm has unveiled plans for its Beijing New Airport Terminal Building, which it says will be the world's largest.
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New images have been released of Turkey's planned Istanbul New Airport. The facility will replace the existing Ataturk Airport. In addition to being one of the busiest airports in the world, it will have the largest terminal under one roof of any airport, according to project architects Grimshaw.
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The idea of spending a night on a plane might be a nightmare for anyone who has flown a long-haul flight in Economy class. But KLM is offering an upgrade that is much more attractive – even if it doesn't get off the ground. The airline has transformed one of its grounded McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft into a luxurious apartment. Dubbed Airplane Apartment, this novel conversion offers four guests a unique overnight stay without the turbulence.
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Foster + Partners has designed a number of airports, including Kuwait International, Jordan's Alia International and the proposed London Britannia. Each is ambitious and environmentally considered. The firm says its Mexico City airport design, however, will make it one of the biggest and the most sustainable in the world.
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What to do with London's increasingly-cramped Heathrow Airport? While plans have previously centered around building a new runway, London mayor Boris Johnson favors abandoning the site altogether, and building a new airport on an artificial island in the Thames Estuary. Should this ambitious plan come to pass, it would leave the original Heathrow site obsolete, presenting an opportunity for redevelopment. To this end, the mayor's office has revealed three proposals for transforming the airport into a new town dubbed Heathrow City.
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In a world first, air traffic controllers armed with a suite of high-tech video and sensor equipment have been authorized to direct flights over 100 km (61 mi) away at an airport in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. The technology, developed by Saab, offers alternatives to consolidate smaller airfields with smaller budgets under one control, and provides options for training, crisis situations, and tower maintenance or refurbishing.
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After a build time of only three years and a budget of US$1 billion, the new Terminal 3 Building at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport, designed by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, makes a dramatic architectural statement. This is the first airport project for the Rome-based architects and one intended to launch them into the frontline of high-design transport terminals.
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Sometimes, success brings its own problems. London’s airports may have managed to grab a considerable chunk of the passenger air market, but the result has been congestion over the south of England and a desperate clamor for new runways. This week, the Thames Estuary Research and Development Company (Testrad) consortium unveiled details of a scheme designed to take the pressure off. Its London Britannia Airport proposal involves building an artificial island in the Thames Estuary near the Isle of Sheppey to provide the capital with a larger airport, which would replace Heathrow.
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